Eremine began his coaching career in 1991 when he took the reigns of Russian giants CSKA Moscow. Success was instant and he won a remarkable 9 Superleague championships in a row before moving to Unics Kazan in 2000. Under his guidance, the side from Perm have won the Russian Cup, the NEBL as well as finishing as runners-up twice in the Superleague.

Eremin has also spent time with the Russian national team and coached them from 1998-2002 at 2 Europeans and 1 World Championship.

The national team set-up is a familiar one to Eremin and as a player he represented the USSR from 1977-1984. He was part of the teams that won European titles in1979 and 1981 and a World title in 1982.

Eremin is also familiar with All-Star games as both a coach and a player. He was twice selected to the European selection as a player and in 1998 coached team East at the EuroStars game in Berlin, Germany.

Dragan Raca

Although he is a native of the former Yugoslavia, Dragan Raca has made Cyprus his home since 1990 and has had a huge impact on basketball in the country.

After playing under legendary coach Dusan Ivkovic, Raca moved to Cyprus where he played for 8 teams in a 12-year career. He retired from playing in 2002 and is the Cypriot league’s all-time leading scorer.

Raca also suited up for the Cypriot national team after gaining naturalisation. He represented Cyprus during the Preliminary Round of the 2003 European Championship, averaging a team high 15.4ppg.

In 2002 he was appointed head coach of EKA AEL and despite managing young and inexperienced players he led AEL to a great run in Europe which ended with his team being crowned FIBA Regional Challenge Cup Champions with an unbeaten record.

In his rookie year as a coach Dragan Raca also led AEL to its first domestic Championship after 15 years. For those achievements he was subsequently voted “Coach of the Year” in Cyprus.

In 2003 success on the European level continued with AEL progressing to the final 16 of the FIBA Europe League.

Andrey Podkovryov

Andrey Podkovryov is in his second season with Ukrainian side Azovmash Mariupol. In his first season with the club, he led them to a 37-3 record and a Ukrainian title. This season, Azovmash have lost just 1 game in their domestic league and made it all the way to the eighth-finals of the FIBA Europe League, before they were eliminated by Greek side Maroussi Athens.

Podkovryov is a familiar face in Kiev where he formed part of the backcourt with the city's club, winning a Soviet title along with former team-mate and current President of BC Kyiv, Alexander Volkov.

Rest of the World

Aco Petrovic

Petrovic made his coaching debut in 1990 with Belgrade based side Beovuk. His next stop was Stari Grad for 1 season before moving to Crveni Krst where he coached Radni ki until 1997.

He was assistant coach with BC Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) for the 1997/1998 season and then became head coach of FMP Zeleznik for 5 seasons. He moved to Hemofarm at the beginning of this season, taking over from Zeljko Lukajic who had taken the side to the final four of the 2003 FIBA Europe Champions Cup.

Petrovic has also spent 2 seasons with the Serbian and Montenegrin national team, serving as first assistant to Svetislav Pesic and winning European and World Championship titles.

Hemofarm are currently on top of the Serb and Montenegrin league with a 16:2 record and in the quarter-finals of the FIBA Europe League.

Zwi Sherf

Sherf is one of the most experienced coaches in European basketball since starting his coaching career in 1977. It was with a Maccabi Tel Aviv farm team that Sherf got his first post (Maccabi “Darom” Tel Aviv) and Sherf stayed in Israel until 1992, when he moved to Aris Thessaloniki. Before leaving, he had stints with Hapoel Ramat Gan, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv (with whom he won 8 league titles), Elitzur Natanya and Maccabi Rishon LeZion.

He won the 1993 Saporta Cup with Aris and then went back to Israel and Hapoel Tel Aviv. Other than 2 further stops with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, Sherf has spent the rest of his career outside of Israel, making stops in Greece (PAOK and Makedonikos), France (Limoges), Poland (Idea Slask) and now with Russian side Dynamo Moscow.

Panagiotis Yiannakis

Yiannakis

Yiannakis first made his reputation as a player where his honours list includes a European Championship with Greece in 1987, a EuroLeague title with Panathinaikos in 1996 and 7 Greek championships with Aris Thessaloniki. He is the most capped Greek national team player ever, with 351 games to his name and the 3rd leading scorer of all time in the Greek League (9,291 points).

Yiannakis began his coaching career in 1997 with the Greek national team. He led the side to 4th place at the 1997 European Championshiop in Spain and followed that with 4th at the 1998 World Championship in Athens. He left the post in 1998 with a 30-14 record.

After spending some time in the USA, he returned to Greecce in 2001 and Panionis. He switched to Maroussi at the beginning of the season and is currently at the top of the Greek standings and in the quarter-finals of the FIBA Europe League.